Country Lovin': Chapter Four

         Jessie pulled the truck into the driveway of Kitty Lukus. It was lock and rocky. He couldn't count how many times he had told her to have it paved. There were holes and rocks the sizes of crators. Kitty had to be in her high fifties, low sixties. She had the salt and pepper hair, but it was becoming more salt than pepper.

"Thanks for letting me grab my luggage from my car. I think that's the nicest thing you've done all day." She smirked. She climbed out of the truck and gathered her things. He had gone to help, but he noticed that she had gotten everything herself. He saw the struggle she was having carrying them herself, but not once did she look at him or ask him for help.

"I think that's the nicest thing you've said all day." He stated as he followed her up the path. He wanted to check on Kitty's wood. She hadn't called him, but the weather was still cool, and the slight arthritis in her hands would get bad if her house wasn't constantly warm.

She didn't reply as she walked up the path. She stopped at the front door, fixed her hair, and knocked on the door. She didn't take off her sunglasses when Kitty answered the door. He rolled her eyes; city women.

"Valene! Oh! I've missed you! Look how pretty you've become!" Kitty's arms went instantly around her niece.

"I've missed you, too, Aunt Kitty. You've gotten prettier since the last time I saw you." Valene said with a bright smile.

Jessie had to agree with Dave, Valene was a pretty woman. Especially when she smiled and wasn't bickerin' all the damn time. He smiled at their closeness. They hadn't seen each other in ages and they looked as though the last time they had seen each other had been the day before.

"I see you brought Jessie with you. How are you, Jessie?" Kitty asked with a smile.

"I'm doing fine, ma'am. How's your firewood?" He asked.

"It's doin' all right. You could probably bring another bundle in tomorrow." She replied placing her frail hands on her shoulders.

"Why do you need firewood, Aunt Kitty?" Valene asked.

"It gets cold at night. It aggitates the slight arthritis in her hands." Jessie informed.

Valene looked up at him then looked away. She reached down for her luggage, but Jessie stood in the way. "I have it, Jessie." She declared.

"So...do I!" He grabbed the two cases and walked inside Kitty's house. "Where's her room, Kitty?" He asked as he stopped in the hallway.

"Upstairs and to the right. It's the spare room." Kitty called. Valene watched as Jessie lugged the luggage up the stairs. "He's sucha nice boy." Kitty said with a smile as she closed the door.

"Yeah, except if you come from the city." She muttered.

Jessie walked into the spare room. He knew where it was. He had used it once before. It had been two years ago. A terrible rain storm had crashed into Almira. It had flooded out the entire town. Everyone's basements had flooded. Kitty had to replace her carpeting. The Lashings, from down the road, had lost their Golden Retriever, when it had run after a rabbit.

He placed Valene's luggage down and stopped when he found a picture on the floor. He raised his eye brows. He didn't know where it had come from, but he bent down and picked it up.

It was a picture of Valene and of another woman, an older man, and a younger man. Valene could tell that it must be her father and her brother and sister. Valene and her brother looked a lot like their father, the brother more so than Valene. The sister, she looked a little bit like the father, but he figured probably looked like their mother. By the picture, they probably didn't have one.

He flipped the picture over. It had been recent. It had been taken six months ago. Summer of 00' was written in nice print. Followed by the names in the picture, Valene May-26, Nadine Joy-24, Warren Adam (dad)-52, and Derek Adam-21

He was silent for a moment, then walked out of the room. He had no idea where the picture came from. Valene and Kitty were laughing and talking in the living room. When he walked into the room, he cleared his throat. The two women looked at him, Valene holding a ciggarette in her left hand, between her forefinger and middle finger and holding a cup of brewed tea. Kitty clasped her hands and were holding them on her lap.

"Yes, Jessie?" Kitty asked. She turned around and looked up at him.

"I found this on the floor. It fell from something. I'm not sure what." Valene stood to see what it was. Her eyes changed somehow when she saw the photo.

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She snatched the picture away, out of his hands. She felt her eyes water and she saw the picture of her father. It had been six months ago. He was so handsome, so brave, so full of love. How could it be that he was no more? She covered her mouth with her hand to hide her trembling lip. She moved past him and walked outside. She needed air.

There was a bench beneath a tree in the front yard. She sat down in it and tried to break her gaze from her father, but it was too hard. It was too hard to see that the man in the picture was no longer. She knew that this was what people did when they grieved, but it wasn't half as bad as when she lost her mother.

Her mother had helped her through everything, she had shared everything with her, and she could talk with her mother about everything. When she died, she couldn't do that anymore. She didn't feel comfortable to talk with anyone else. She felt like something was missing, like she lost something and couldn't find it. That was when she had taken up smoking, to help relieve what couldn't be relieved by anyone else.

Even though it helped, it was no substitute for her mother. She had tried to stop almost a year after her mother had died, but she had found the same tension, the same feeling, and she got sick and couldn't help being moody and depressed, had went back to smoking again. She wished she had a ciggarette now. Her hands were trembling.

She rubbed her forehead and could advert her eyes from the picture. So much lost, so little gained. She'd have to call Derek and Nadine soon. It had been three days since she'd last talked to either of them. She had called Nadine the day before she left. She had told her that she would be staying at Aunt Kitty's and that she'd be back in a couple of weeks. She found out that Derek had taken a week off from work. So many of Derek's actions reflected her own. He knew what it was like to lose someone you most trusted with your life.

Her hands continued to tremble as she took another drag from her ciggarette. Damn him! Damn that country boy! Damn Jessie! How could he have found it? It had been inside her luggage. She had wrapped it in a tissue so it would get scratched by anything inside the luggage.

"Valene?" She looked up at saw her Aunt Kitty. Jessie was coming out, but he was leaving. He cast a glance at her then turned and headed back to his truck. She looked back at her aunt.

"Yes?" She stomped out the ciggarette that was down to the filter.

"I want to talk with you." Kitty walked over to her and sat down. "Sit with me, Val."

Valene sat down next to her aunt. They both watched as Jessie's truck pulled out of the driveway and headed back towards town.

"I know it's hard." Kitty stated. She placed a frail hand on Valene's shoulder. "I know how the death of your mother affected you. It's hard."

Valene nodded. "I know what Derek is going through. He won't be able to trust. He'll close up. He's doing everything I went through. I know." Her bottom lip began to tremble as the past came alive in her mind. "It's so damn hard to move on when there is no one there to help, to confide in. It's hard when you're all alone and no one understands."

Kitty patted her shoulder. "Honey, I know what you went through. I helped your father pay for everything you needed, the therapist, the anti-depressants..." She saw her niece wince. "It's all right. Everything is going to be okay."

"I'm afraid for him. He had Daddy a lot longer than I had Mom. He's so much like Dad that it scares me, because I want to call him Dad, I want to hold him and...It's just so hard. I know how it must feel for Derek. They did everything together." Valene wiped her eyes with the palms of her hands.

"What I wanted to tell you is that everything is going to be okay. You made it through your mother's death and Derek will make it through your father's death. You guys have to be there for each other. That's what love is, Valene." Kitty wrapped and arm around Valene's shoulders and pulled her towards her. Valene willingly leaned against her aunt. It had been awhile since she had someone she could trust and lean against.

"Brad broke up with me," Valene began. "I had come home after the hospital, after Dad had died." She closed her eyes and tried to wipe away the video that was being played inside her mind. "He was sitting on the chair watching the news. He didn't want me to call him shallow. He told me that it was all sex and that the passion had run cold and that we had never had love, just sex." She leaned up and looked at her aunt. "Has anyone told you that your relationship was totally based on sex and nothing else? That no one really loved you?"

Kitty nodded. "Yes. I was twenty-three years old. It was two years before I met my Frank. His name had been Samuel Robertson. He had been a lawyer. He was strikingly handsome, tall, swift, and had tons of charm. I think that was what caught me to him. His charm. We dated for three years, we had sex of course, like any other young couple of the time, and all of sudden, he had to get up and move, I was all willing to go with him, but he had told me no, that he was moving to get away from me. That our relationship had gone sour, that it had been sex, just sex for a very long time. He had said 'Thanks for the good time, Kitty, but this is the end of the road.'" Kitty laughed, then something in her eyes had changed. "I had been so heart broken. I didn't trust anyone. It was the stubborn wit of your Uncle Frank that had changed my mind. He had shown me that not all men are shallow, heartless, bastards."

Valene smiled at the words she would've and had used. "Are you sure all men aren't like that? Times have changed, Aunt Kitty. It's very hard to find a man who isn't shallow, who isn't heartless, and who isn't a bastard. It's hard to find a man with just two of those qualities."

"What I'm trying to say, Valene, is that there is a man out there. God is helping you. He knows which man is perfect for you. He's just letting you find your own path. He won't let you wander too far off course." Kitty laughed. "Want to help me make some lunch?" She stood and stretched.

"Country Lovin': Chapter Five"